election, the office of judges, who were called Brehons, the trades of
mechanics, and even those arts which we are apt to consider as depending
principally on natural genius, such as poetry and music, were confined
in succession to certain races: the Irish imagining that greater
advantages were to be derived from an early institution, and the
affection of parents desirous of perpetuating the secrets of their art
in their families, than from the casual efforts of particular fancy and
application. This is much in the strain of the Eastern policy; but these
and many other of the Irish institutions, well enough calculated to
preserve good arts and useful discipline, when these arts came to
degenerate, were equally well calculated to prevent all improvement and
to perpetuate corruption, by infusing an invincible tenaciousness of
ancient customs.

The people of Ireland were much more addicted to pasturage than
agriculture, not more from the quality of their soil than from a remnant
of the Scythian manners. They had but few towns, and those not
fortified, each clan living dispersed over its own territory. The few
walled towns they had lay on the sea-coast; they were built by the
Danes, and held after they had lost their conquests in the inland parts:
here was carried on the little foreign trade which the island then
possessed.

The Irish militia was of two kinds: one called _kerns_, which were
foot, slightly armed with a long knife or dagger, and almost naked; the
other, _galloglasses,_ who were horse, poorly mounted, and generally
armed only with a battle-axe. Neither horse nor foot made much use of
the spear, the sword, or the bow. With indifferent arms, they had still
worse discipline. In these circumstances, their natural bravery, which,
though considerable, was not superior to that of their invaders, stood